1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer technology, and more particularly, to a versatile memory chip programming device and method capable of writing data by way of an arbitrary type of I/O control chip, such as Southbridge chip, into a memory chip, such as a BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) chip used in a personal computer (PC).
2. Description of Related Art
Southbridge chip is an I/O control chip developed by Intel and is widely utilized on computer motherboard for controlling data flow over PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) compliant buses connected between memory units and various other I/O devices such as IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) compliant hard disk drivers, USB (Universal Serial Bus) compliant communication interfaces, serial ports, and so on.
BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) is a set of hardware-related system routines in a personal computer, which is stored in a nonvolatile memory chip, such as ROM (read-only memory) or flash memory, for providing an interface between the operating system and the PC""s hardware components. Since PC technology advances very quickly, it is often required to upgrade the BIOS code in a PC so as to allow the PC to be compatible with newer hardware and software.
One conventional way to upgrade BIOS code in a PC is to replace the old BIOS chip with a new one. However, this practice is quite cost-ineffective since the old chip is discarded and a new chip is required. One cost-effective solution to this problem is to use a programmable memory chip to store the BIOS code so that when upgrade is needed, a programming device can be externally coupled to the BIOS chip (typically by way of a Southbridge chip) and then erase the old BIOS code in the memory chip and write the new version of BIOS code into the memory chip. One drawback to this solution, however, is that the programming device can only be coupled to a particular type of Southbridge chip and incompatible with other types of Southbridge chips. Although all Southbridge chips are based on the same architecture, different makes of Southbridge chips from different manufacturers are usually different in specification, which makes the programming device only compatible with one type of Southbridge chip. For this sake, when there are an assortment of different types of Southbridge chips, it requires the user to own a number of different types of programming devices to perform BIOS upgrades, which is apparently quite laborious and costly to implement.
It is therefore an objective of this invention to provide a versatile memory chip programming device and method that allows one unit of programming device to be compatible with various different types of Southbridge chips so that one single unit of programming device can be coupled to various types of Southbridge chips for BIOS upgrades.
It is another objective of this invention to provide a versatile memory chip programming device and method that allows BIOS upgrades to be more cost-effective to implement than prior art.
The memory chip programming device and method according to the invention is designed for use with an arbitrary type of I/O control chip (such as a Southbridge chip) coupled to a memory chip (such as a BIOS chip) for the purpose of writing data by way of the Southbridge chip into the memory chip.
In operation, the memory chip programming device of the invention first performs a chip type detecting procedure to detect the particular type of the I/O control chip being currently coupled; then performs a mapping procedure to retrieve the device driver and related settings from the database corresponding to the detected device type of the I/O control chip being currently coupled; subsequently performs a setting procedure to set a write control module to an operation mode based on the retrieved device driver and related settings from the database; and finally performing a write procedure to activate the write control module to write the data by way of the I/O control chip into the memory chip.
The memory chip programming device according to the invention is characterized by that the particular type of the Southbridge chip can be automatically detected to thereby set the write control module to operate in the corresponding mode that is compatible to the particular type of the Southbridge chip being currently coupled. This feature allows one single unit of memory chip programming device to be compatible to various types of Southbridge chips for BIOS upgrades so that BIOS upgrades can be made more cost-effective to implement than prior art.